NBA center Jason Collins will be the first openly gay active athlete in the four major American professional sports when the Brooklyn Nets reportedly sign him to a 10-day contract today, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports.

Collins came out to Sports Illustrated last April while he was a free agent. Unlike John Amaechi, who came out in 2007 after retiring, the 34-year-old Collins wanted to continue his basketball career. And now he'll get that chance with the Nets.

NBA free agent Jason Collins, who played his college ball at Stanford and has been bouncing around…
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From a game perspective, Collins wouldn't be Brooklyn's starting center, though the Nets desperately need big men depth with Brook Lopez missing the rest of the season after a foot injury. Collins could realistically poach some minutes from the bench with his only competition being Andray Blatche and Mirza Teletovic. But the larger story, of course, is Collins breaking a significant barrier in American professional sports.